Fruit Seller Makes Crowd Clash with Police in Tunisia

Ngebray.com,- Burning tires on 30 kilometers west of the capital Tunis. The protests followed a fruit seller setting fire to himself and being badly burned. The incident is similar to the birth of the Arab Spring protests movement in Tunisia in 2010. Fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s died after setting himself ablaze that caused an uprising in Tunisia and then revolutions across the Arab world.

An eyewitness said, “The desparate act of setting himself a light followed a dispute with police. The dispute between my business partner and a policeman ended with the strawberries getting scattered on the floor, they were worth around 300 US Dollars. I just felt really oppressed. My car is still under lease you know and I’m up against with the bank. Young people here do not know what will become of them. Especially with the way the police treat them. I can why they turn to alcohol or even violence. Unemployment is the cause of all this. If they had work, they would never do such bad things.” Recovering from his burns, he says the problem that caused the Arab Spring have not gone away. The process will go bigger as frustrations with police and government continue.

Picture from https://twitter.com/JigginoRuss/status/862280685813469184/photo/1

Protest against living conditions have been going on for weeks in areas of high poverty. President Beji Caid Essebsi announced on Wednesday, the army was being sent to protect petroleum and phosphate facilities. Unemployed teenagers especially say there are very few job opportunities and little has changed since the Arab uprising which was meant to revolutionize lives.